Olympics: Norway aims for record 30 medals in Pyeongchang

OSLO (Reuters) - Norway is aiming to win a record 30 medals at the 2018 Winter Games in South Korea and rank among the top three nations, Norway’s Olympic committee said on Wednesday.

FILE PHOTO: Fireworks explode to celebrate 100 days to go until the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics in Incheon, South Korea, November 1, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

The target surpasses the country’s current record of 26 medals, set in 1994 at Lillehammer, Norway, and equaled at the 2014 Games in Sochi, Russia.

Despite a population of just 5.2 million people, the Nordic country has often featured in the top three nations at the Winter Olympics, last ranking first at the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City in the United States with 13 gold medals.

“This is the highest ambition we have ever had and we like it,” Tore Oevreboe, sports director of the Norwegian Olympics Committee, said in a statement on Wednesday, which marks 100 days before the start of the Olympic Games in Pyeongchang.

“If we are to be among the top three nations, history tells us that we probably need to win ten gold medals,” he added.

In the previous Olympic games in Sochi in 2014, only Russia won more medals than Norway with 33 medals in total.